Allen’s Bloor is listed here – erroneously – on CT as the Midtown and currently serves as Lee’s Palace, a nightclub. It took me a little while to sort this out because there is erroneous information both on the Midtown page and elsewhere. In fact, the Midtown page should not be labeled Midtown, and this fact has been noted by other commentators, but the error has not been corrected.

What is now Lee’s Palace opened as Allen’s Bloor at 529 W. Bloor in 1919. Famous Players took over the Canadian assets of the Allen chain in 1923, so this theater was later the first Bloor Theatre. The current Bloor, across the street at 506, opened as the Madison and has had a number of names, including the Midtown, Capri, and Eden.

So, the AKA of Allen’s Bloor should be on a theater that should be listed here on CT as either Lee’s Palace (in that case, it should have two AKAs: Allen’s Bloor and Bloor and possibly some others, but not Midtown) OR as Bloor Theatre (with an AKA of Allen’s Bloor) and the current function noted as Nightclub and an indication in the headnote that it is currently called Lee’s Palace.

The web page Eric Veillette linked to in his comment of Jan 23, 2011, has a scan of an ad for Allen theaters which includes an Allen’s Bloor. Does anybody know if that house is listed at Cinema Treasures under a different name? If it is, it’s missing the aka. I found an article about a Bloor Street Allen Theater in a 1919 trade journal, and I’d like to link to it on the appropriate Cinema Treasures page, if somebody can point me to it.

I know it seems like that whole stretch of Danforth is just a dead zone for theatres with the Allenby/Roby also being bulldosed for an Esso/Timmy’s with only the fascade left standing. I know from Coxwell to V Park there is a lot of land being redeveloped for more screens to be developed, and the Hall should be used for sure, maybe even snapped up by Dancap that showed the Toxic Avenger there a year or two ago.

What IS it about this area that can’t support this venue as either a movie theatre or live performance venue!?? It’s a very popular part of town, Greektown/Riverdale and once had this one, then known as the Century, the Palace (which was turned in to 3 by Famous Players in ‘82, and only lasted 5 yrs) and the Odeon Danforth. This Music Hall was even part of the very successful Festival chain for a few years and even THAT didn’t work! Don’t people in this area go to the movies or concerts?? I just don’t get it about this place. The Kingsway, Revue, Royal came back..the Fox never left and the Humber is coming back. WHY not here??!!

Weirdly enough I have never seen a movie here but have fond memories of shooting Don Mckellar’s a Word from the Management short in the auditorium along with seeing the Tragically Hip play a pretour show here to several hundred screeming fans. A beautiful restoration for sure. Do they still do the occasional film or is it all live perofrmance now?

I spent a day last November (2006) driving around the Toronto area doing a photo essay on old cinemas. There is a photo of the Danforth Music Hall from my visit, along with some other Toronto area cinemas at:http://globecontact.com/photoessay/cinemas.htm

Yes, they’ve done a fairly decent improvement job. Concert promoters now seem more willing to rent the facilities. I saw Lindsay Buckingham there a couple of months ago. Supposedly the event was sold out.

I ran Toronto’s Roxy theatre in the70’s and early 80 for the same group that owned what was then known as the Titania, essentially a venue for Greek films. Realizing that the building actually had a stagehouse and dressing rooms, I talked the owners into renaming it the Music Hall. The place was partly renovated and one of the first programs was a Tim Curry (Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror) concert. Unfortunately, the owners didn’t complete the work. The dressing rooms were a mess, the stage equipment needed upgrading, and the air-conditioning system was non-functional. Over the years the owners allowed the place to deteriorate even further, and it languished in disrepair until a recent management completed the necessary improvements and are operating it as a succesful concert venue.

The Music Hall is back and in great shape. After a pretty major facelift both inside and out in early 2006, the Music Hall is now calling itself The Danforth Music Hall Theatre. Sadly, the Festival Movies seem to be gone, but it’s currently a venue for lots of great blues, jazz and folk rock performers like the Dave Holland Quintet, Madeleine Peyroux, Matt Dusk, Amos Lee and I hear Jim Cuddy’s band is playing there in the end of November. Welcome back…we missed you.

The Music Hall could hardly be considered a ‘downtown’ theater. The location on Danforth Av, east of Broadview, is a fair distance east of the center of town and across the Don Valley. Nevertheless, it’s easily accessible from the Broadview subway station on the Bloor-Danforth line.